Hells Angels building up for return to Halifax

Twisted Needs & Novelties on MacLean Street in New Glasgow sells clothing championing the support of biker gangs, the Hells Angels and the Gate Keepers. (THE CHRONICLE HERALD)

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The Hells Angels haven’t had a Nova Scotia chapter since they rode out of Halifax in 2003, but the outlaw motorcycle gang might be revving up for a return.

“It’s reasonable to say that they’re coming,” RCMP Const. Cindy Cullen of the combined forces intelligence unit said in a recent interview. “I’d be comfortable (saying) within five years. I suspect it might be sooner.”

She said some recent moves in Nova Scotia demonstrate an increased interest by the Angels.

There’s been a rapid expansion of their puppet club, called the Gate Keepers.

The first Gate Keepers chapter opened in Musquodoboit Harbour in February 2013 and has 18 to 20 members, Cullen said. The second chapter came into existence four months later when Bridgewater’s Darksiders patched over to become Gate Keepers, which now has nine members. A New Glasgow Gate Keepers chapter started with nine members this April, and a chapter with six or seven members opened in Centreville, Kings County, at the end of July.

“They’re self-proclaimed as a prospect club by the Hells Angels,” Cullen said of the Gate Keepers, whose emblem has the same colour scheme as the Angels. “They wear red and white, which is a clear indication that they have been sanctioned by a Hells Angels club.”

The London, Ont., chapter of the Hells Angels sanctions all four of Nova Scotia’s Gate Keepers chapters, plus one in Middlesex, Ont.

Cullen said a London member of the Hells Angels has visited Nova Scotia at least eight times since the spring.

A sign is a fixed to Portland Street building, purported to be the Dartmouth Darksiders clubhouse in Dartmouth. (THE CHRONICLE HERALD)

The Dartmouth Darksiders are also a Hells Angels support club and are friendly with the Gate Keepers, she said.

Cullen would not say if police currently have any investigations underway or suspect any illegal activity in association with the clubs.

She said it’s “realistic” to think some Darksiders and Gate Keepers would become Hells Angels if a chapter opens in Nova Scotia.

“We see them here more often and for longer periods with the Darksiders and the Gate Keepers,” Cullen said of the Angels. “Nova Scotia is definitely an interest to them.”

Cullen said both of those support clubs appear to have smoothed over some differences they had with Bacchus, Canada’s second-oldest motorcycle club, which is independent and has two chapters in Nova Scotia: Harrietsfield (nine members) and McGraths Cove (seven members).

“When the Gate Keepers came in, the information we had initially was (that) there was tension between themselves and the Bacchus,” she said. “What we’ve seen … through the summer, the riding season, they’ve seemed to (have) fixed whatever tensions were there. They’re both showing each other respect and standing and talking to each other. I would hope that if/when the Hells Angels open here, violence would be the last resort for them.”

Currently, the all-important back patches worn by Bacchus has Nova Scotia written in the bottom rocker, which claims Nova Scotia as its territory. Cullen said police will be keeping an eye on the patch.

“I wouldn’t say they would be subservient or under the Gate Keepers or Darksiders at this point. If that rocker were to change, that would make it very clear that someone else is claiming Nova Scotia as their territory.”

The storefront of Twisted Needs and Novelties in New Glasgow. (THE CHRONICLE HERALD)

The original Hells Angels chapter in Halifax collapsed after almost 20 years in existence.

Formed in December 1984, the chapter was decimated by Operation Hammer, which resulted in 20 arrests in a December 2001 raid at the old Hells Angels clubhouse on Dutch Village Road. By August 2003, four of its seven members were in jail, the Crown had seized the clubhouse and the chapter was done.

Stephen Schneider, a Saint Mary’s University criminology professor, said the Sherbrooke, Que., Hells Angels kept an eye on Atlantic Canada immediately after 2003 but became overwhelmed by police investigations and other issues. The London chapter then took Atlantic Canada under its wing.

London’s Hells Angels chapter is not that old. It started in 2005 and has about 12 members, according to Staff Sgt. Len Isnor of the Ontario Provincial Police biker enforcement unit.

Isnor keeps abreast of biker developments in Atlantic Canada and hasn’t heard anything about a Hells Angels chapter coming to the region.

“Could it happen?” he asked. “Yes.”

However, he believes if it does happen, it would not be for some time.

“There’s a process, and it’s a lengthy process. It has to go for a vote and so on and so forth. It’s just not done overnight.”

He said support club bikers want to be in the Hells Angels and are often tested for their loyalty.

“Support clubs are basically set to further isolate them (Hells Angels) from prosecution. They’re the top of the heap, they don’t want to be prosecuted on criminal offences, so they have people that are underneath them and groups that are underneath them that will do their dirty work.

“They will show their loyalty to the Hells Angels by protecting them and taking the fall or doing things for them to make them money.”

Isnor, Cullen and Schneider all agree that Halifax’s port makes it attractive to the Hells Angels.

Schneider said the Angels, as of late, generally prefer to expand via puppet clubs and not new chapters. He believes Halifax could be an exception because of its port and, to a lesser extent, its proximity to ports in Saint John, N.B.. and St. John’s, N.L.

“Hells Angels have always wanted a national drug pipeline,” Schneider said. “It’s strategic. It’s marking your territory. That’s still their main industry, bringing in drugs, and the marine ports is the best way to do so.”

He said it would be difficult to co-ordinate costly contraband imports in Halifax from London or Sherbrooke.

“You need that kind of physical presence,” he said, adding that could include having someone on the inside to help them.

In 2003, Paul Matthew Arthur, a crane operator at the port of Halifax who police said had ties to the Hells Angels, was sentenced to 14 years in prison. Police said he helped smuggle hundreds of millions of dollars worth of drugs into Canada.

Schneider said border security is better now and the port of Montreal is tougher to use for drug smuggling, making Halifax that much more attractive. As well, he believes the Angels might be interested in using Halifax to export synthetic drugs, something Canada is becoming known for.

He believes the Hells Angels are keen to avoid serious violence, like the deadly Quebec biker wars of the 1990s.

“They want to get into Nova Scotia and they want Atlantic Canada back under their fold,” Schneider said “At the same time, they’d be very hesitant to start any type of wide-scale conflict or bloodshed.”